By Jeff Zrebiec, The Baltimore Sun –
BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Ravens’ NFL-best home winning streak survived the Dallas Cowboys, but just barely.
All it took was Dan Bailey sending the potential game-winning field goal wide left in the waning seconds and moments earlier, Dez Bryant, following his second touchdown catch, dropping a potential game-tying two-point conversion.
The result was the Ravens’ 31-29 victory in front of an announced 71,384 on Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. Ray Rice scored two touchdowns and Jacoby Jones returned a kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown.
But still, the Ravens, who allowed an opponent to gain more than 200 yards on the ground for the second straight game, barely hung on to two different second-half leads.
Bryant’s second touchdown catch from Tony Romo with 34 seconds to play cut the Ravens’ lead to 31-29. Bryant then dropped the potential two-point conversion.
However, the Cowboys got the ball back following an onside kick before Bailey missed the potential game-winning field goal with six seconds to play.
It was the Ravens’ NFL-best 14th straight home win and it also improved them to 5-1 for just the second time in franchise history.
But it also came at a cost as several of the Ravens’ top defensive players couldn’t finish the game because of injuries. The biggest loss could be cornerback Lardarius Webb, who is feared to have a serious left knee injury. Ray Lewis also wasn’t on the field for most of the Cowboys’ final drive because of a right arm/shoulder injury.
Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and cornerback Jimmy Smith were among the other players who were banged up in the game.
Jones’ 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, which set a franchise record and tied the NFL mark, gave the Ravens a 24-13 lead early in the third quarter.
However, the Cowboys, continuing to rely on their running game, went 80 yards on 14 plays on their next drive. A 7-yard touchdown pass from Tony Romo to Dez Bryant cut the Ravens’ lead to 24-20. Dan Bailey’s third field goal, this one from 34 yards, trimmed the Ravens’ lead to 24-23 with 8:22 to play.
However, after failing to get a first down on the first two drives of the second half, Flacco needed just 10 plays to cover 73 yards and get the Ravens in the end zone. The biggest play of the drive was Flacco’s 31-yard completion to Anquan Boldin.
Three plays later and on 3rd-and-goal from the 1, Rice took it in for his second touchdown. This one gave the Ravens a 31-23 lead with 4:41 to play.
Things didn’t look good for the Ravens for much of the first half. For the second straight week, their run defense was getting gouged in the first half, this time by the combination of DeMarco Murray and Felix Jones, whose 21-yard touchdown run down the left sideline finalized an eight-play, 80-yard drive and gave Dallas a 7-3 lead at the 8:13 mark of the first quarter.
On the first play of the Cowboys’ next drive, Webb went down with a left knee injury, while trying to defend an 18-yard completion to Bryant. Webb was helped off the field, unable to put any weight on his left leg. He was diagnosed with a knee sprain and did not return.
The Cowboys got down to the Ravens’ 12 on that drive, but a penalty and a negative-7-yard completion to Bryant forced Bailey’s 42-yard field goal early in the second quarter.
Trailing 10-3, the Ravens got the ball back and went 80 yards on eight plays to tie the game on Rice’s 1-yard touchdown run. The big play on the drive was a 43-yard Flacco to Rice completion to 3rd-and-7 from the Ravens’ 43. A 16-yard run by rookie Bernard Pierce and an illegal use of hands penalty on Cowboys defensive tackle Kenyon Coleman set up Rice’s 1-yard plunge.
The Cowboys got the ball back and again drove it into Ravens territory, but Romo, who threw five interceptions in his last game against the Chicago Bears, was picked off by cornerback Cary Williams. It marked Williams’ third straight game with an interception.
The Ravens had the ball at their 20 with a little more than two minutes left. Three straight Flacco completions to Anquan Boldin – the first one for 20 yards on 3rd-and-14 – put the ball down to the Cowboys’ 30. Two plays later, Flacco found wide receiver Torrey Smith in the left corner of the end zone for the 19-yard touchdown catch. Smith outmuscled and out-jumped rookie Morris Claiborne for the touchdown, and the 17-10 Ravens lead.
